After Faking My Death, I Sub-gendered into an Omega; My Alpha Ex-Husband Tracked My Scent and Wept - Chapter 7

After the meal, Shen Qi lay on the sofa, answering the phone as Yu An expressed his concern.

He tried to brush it off, saying he was fine, while pressing a chilled spoon against his eyelids. The icy touch of the metal made him let out a soft hiss.

Just as they were chatting idly about this and that, his phone began to vibrate, and messages from the finance department’s group chat popped up one after another.

Shen Qi picked up his phone and took a look.

【Shocking! President Cheng brought a super cute Omega into the office today!】

【Pink hair! Skin glowing with whiteness!】

【The two locked the office door and stayed inside for three hours!】

【Latest news: President Cheng personally walked him downstairs and even helped him carry his things.】

【Oh my god, I am out on a field assignment, I want to go back and see!】

In the attached candid photo, Shi Nian was looking up and smiling at Cheng Yanzhou, his pale pink hair hanging by his cheeks like an exquisite doll.

So this was what he meant by “urgent company business.”

Busy with business in the office, indeed.

On the other end of the line, Yu An had just finished asking, “So, on an anniversary like this, he just left you waiting bitterly all night?”

Receiving no answer for a long time, Yu An assumed his words had saddened his friend. He spoke cautiously, his voice filled with worry: “Qi-zai, are you okay?”

“Take me out to drink,” Shen Qi heard himself say. “Right now.”

The neon lights of Twilight Bar cast a hazy glow across the city street as dusk fell.

As soon as Shen Qi and Yu An stepped in and sat down, the bartender approached with a Gimlet, a playful look on his face.

“Haven’t seen you two in a few days. The usual for this guest?”

Shen Qi looked at it coldly. He did not need to taste it to imagine the flavor, but now, staring at the crystal-clear liquid in the glass, a wave of nausea hit him for no reason.

He nodded, smiled to dismiss the bartender, then pressed two fingers against the base of the wine glass and pushed it toward Yu An sitting across from him.

“I do not want to drink this today.”

“Alright, alright, I will drink it. What do you want to drink then? I will order it for you.”

Yu An knew the significance of this drink to Shen Qi and took it, following his lead.

Then, he met Shen Qi’s resolute gaze.

“I want the strongest stuff you have!”

An hour later.

Shen Qi was sitting in a corner booth, three empty glasses in front of him.

“Slow down!”

Yu An grabbed his glass, his brow furrowed. “Is he worth it, for a scum Alpha?”

Shen Qi shook his head, then nodded, and finally, answering the question obliquely, he said, “Do you know? I do not even have the qualification to be jealous.”

?

Yu An was confused.

Shen Qi’s gaze was clouded as he pointed to the back of his neck. “Betas do not even have pheromones. What kind of spouse does that make me?”

Finishing his sentence, he slumped over the edge of the table, half of his flushed cheek buried in the crook of his arm.

Clearly, he had overindulged. His usually bright eyes were now half-closed, his eye corners flushed with an unnatural crimson, and his eyelashes misted with steam from the alcohol.

A few stray hairs hung before his eyes, but they could not hide the hint of moisture at the corners of his eyes; they were trembling, on the verge of falling.

His entire person radiated a fragility that had stripped away all defenses under the influence of alcohol.

Yet, Shen Qi sat upright again, reaching for the next glass.

Yu An, filled with worry, pressed down on his hand.

“That is enough, Qi-zai. You have never drunk this much before. Do not drink any more.”

Shen Qi’s unfocused eyes caught sight of the Gimlet recipe on the wall’s decorative plaque. The first line clearly read “Gin.”

He suddenly laughed, and the tear that had been hovering fell instantly. “How ridiculous. I even have to rely on my imagination for his pheromones.”

The bar lights hit Shen Qi’s face, making his red, swollen eyes look even more fragile.

Yu An could not bear it anymore. He took away his glass. “Come on, I will take you home.”

“No!”

Shen Qi stood up abruptly, then steadied himself against the wall due to dizziness. “I want to ask him.”

“Ask what?”

“Ask him why.” Shen Qi’s voice suddenly lowered, becoming slightly clearer.

“Why, when you clearly do not like me and clearly have others, you still will not just cleanly divorce me.”

Yu An watched his friend, who had finished his heroic declaration only to collapse back into his seat, nearly passing out. He sighed.

Cheng Yanzhou was looking over the medication instructions Shi Nian had left behind when he received the call.

Seeing that the caller was Shen Qi, a wave of joy surged in his heart. He controlled his tone, speaking calmly, “Hello?”

“You rotten scum, come pick up your wife. He is drunk out of his mind and I cannot carry him.”

?

The voice on the other end was vaguely familiar. It took Cheng Yanzhou a long time to match it to the face of Shen Qi’s friend, Yu An, whom he had met before; an Omega.

The other party’s tone was not friendly; it was even filled with a hint of gnashing teeth, sounding as if he had only called him as a last resort.

The insult “rotten scum” did not provoke his anger; instead, his heart hammered violently at the second half of the sentence.

How did he get drunk?

“Where are you?”

“Twilight Bar.”

His gin-scented pheromones instantly overflowed uncontrollably. Cheng Yanzhou grabbed his car keys and rushed out, not even caring that the gauze on the back of his neck was soaking through with blood.

Inside the bar.

Shen Qi was still curled up in the booth, his cheeks flushed an unnatural red.

Sensing someone approaching, he looked up dazedly. “Cheng Yanzhou?”

“It is me.”

Cheng Yanzhou arrived, travel-worn, and hurried to take off his suit jacket to wrap around him.

Yu An, standing to the side with his arms crossed, had been posturing ever since Cheng Yanzhou walked in, covering his nose and rolling his eyes, not giving him a pleasant look.

But Cheng Yanzhou did not care at all; his whole heart and soul were on Shen Qi.

His suit jacket, soaked in his pheromones, had not yet fully covered Shen Qi before it was shoved away hard by the person in his arms.

“Do not touch me.”

Shen Qi wobbled as he stood up, and tears began to fall. “You are not with that person? Shi Nian?”

The Alpha’s arm froze in mid-air.

Seeing the other frozen, Shen Qi leaned in close. His breath, heavy with the scent of alcohol, swept over Cheng Yanzhou’s Adam’s apple, bringing a burning, itchy sensation.

He grabbed the collar of Cheng Yanzhou’s shirt, his eyelashes still wet, his voice mixing with the alcohol and breaking into intermittent sobs. “Do you know, I do not even have the qualification to be jealous.”

His fingertips unconsciously brushed against Cheng Yanzhou’s neck, as if searching for something in vain.

Cheng Yanzhou heard him say:

“Betas cannot smell pheromones. I cannot, I cannot even find evidence when catching him in the act.”

The second half of the sentence was light, yet it struck Cheng Yanzhou’s nerves unexpectedly.

All his reason collapsed. Almost by instinct, he scooped the person up into his arms horizontally.

In Yu An’s astonished gaze, he strode toward the door, his arms tensed tightly, as if afraid that the person in his arms would shatter at any second.

Shen Qi in his arms struggled uneasily, his head swaying. Suddenly, he leaned into his neck, his nose almost burying into his collar, inhaling deeply and forcefully.

After a moment, he muttered sullenly, his voice wrapped in an inextricable grievance: “Still cannot smell it.”

He paused, his eyelashes brushing against the skin of the person beside him with a wet, cool touch.

“Why, why can they all smell it?”

Cheng Yanzhou’s footsteps stopped abruptly. It felt as if all the blood in his body rushed to his head at this moment, only to sink to the bottom of his heart in the next, stirring up a sharp, piercing pain.

He looked down, colliding with Shen Qi’s misted eyes. The other was heavily intoxicated, his gaze unfocused, yet there was a stubbornness in him as he spoke these words.

Shen Qi was jealous.

Not jealous of who possessed him, but jealous of those Omegas who could easily capture his pheromones, who could possess that secret and unique connection he had never been given.

This realization exploded within his chest, shaking his heart and making it beat wildly.

He tightened his arms, holding the person in his embrace even closer. His voice was hoarse beyond measure, carrying a tremor he had not even noticed himself:

“Let us go home.”

“I am taking you home.”